addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on The Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men 1:4

If integrated into the book of Daniel: 3.27

The connector For may be omitted since this verse does not have a logical relationship with the previous verse.

Thou art just in all that thou hast done to us: Good News Translation “You have treated us as we deserve” says substantially the same thing, but there is a real problem with this. There is a tension between the text and the context. Is Azariah confessing sin, for which God is giving them due punishment by putting them in the fire? But even as he speaks, he is being saved from the flames—this is hardly punishment. The clause can be translated as New Jerusalem Bible has taken it, in a favorable sense: “you are upright in all that you have done for us,” but that seems to have Azariah presumptuously telling God that God has done only the just thing in protecting them from the flames. There is an easy way out of this predicament and translators are urged to follow it. Most manuscripts do not contain the problematic Greek word translated to us. They simply omit it. No footnote is needed since there is excellent textual support. “You have been fair [or, just/righteous] in all you have [ever] done” may also be rendered “Everything you do is right” (Contemporary English Version), “you are just in all you have done” (New American Bible), or “thou art just in all thy deeds” (New English Bible).

And all thy works are true and thy ways right, and all thy judgments are truth: Good News Translation seems to be combining the first clause of this verse (thou art just in all that thou hast done to us) with the second one, and the third clause with the fourth one. The entire restructuring in Good News Translation, which is rather cumbersome, implies the presence in the Greek text of the doubtful word for to us discussed just above. Without that word, Azariah is speaking about everything that God does, not just how God deals with him and his friends in the furnace, or even with all the Jewish people. He will get around to that in the next verse. But here the text, without the doubtful and problematic word, is saying essentially this:

(a) every act of yours is righteous;
(b) everything you do is proper;
(c) all the guidance you give is right;
(d) all the decisions you make are correct.

(a) and (b) have virtually the same meaning and it will be possible to combine them. Contemporary English Version does this with “Everything you do is right.” Then (c) and (d) may also be combined; for example, “whatever you decide is just [or, correct].”

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• You have been fair [or, just] in everything you have done, and whatever you decide is always correct.

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see here.